


Four

by mysticanni



Category: Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018), Queen (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Camping, Cards, Domestic Fluff, Metamorphosis, Planets, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:55:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25825498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mysticanni/pseuds/mysticanni
Summary: Freddie, Brian, John and Roger reflect on their new relationship.
Relationships: John Deacon/Brian May/Freddie Mercury/Roger Taylor
Comments: 12
Kudos: 27





	Four

Directions 

“Roger,” Freddie yelled, slamming the front door shut, “once I’ve had the longest shower in history I shall want to hit your drums!”

Brian’s curly head appeared around the sitting room door and his lips quirked at the sight of Freddie. “It would seem you’ve already had a mud-bath,” he grinned, “You’re looking a bit bedraggled.”

“Do not joke about this,” Freddie warned him.

John’s head also appeared at the door. “Take your muddy boots off,” he commanded. “Don’t trail mud all over the house.”

Freddie huffed but did as he was told. When he looked up Roger had appeared in the hall. “Oh, Fred was it awful?” he asked sympathetically. 

“Unspeakable, darling,” Freddie shuddered, although he had to admit he felt a lot better now he was home. “Utterly vile,” he added for emphasis just in case they didn’t realise quite what an ordeal he had gone through.

He used Roger’s soap and Brian’s shampoo and conditioner, all familiar, reassuring, welcoming scents. He had briefly considered using one of John’s cheap supermarket products for completeness but discovered he was not quite that needy. Sue him if that made him a snob about products. He knew John would argue that spending more money didn’t necessarily get you a better product but he liked a bit of luxury. He’d only been away for two nights but he had really missed his home comforts. Those two nights on the horrific team building course represented time he would never get back. 

“I feel much better now,” he declared to the others as he joined them in the kitchen. “I felt positively inhuman before,” he added with a theatrical shudder. 

“Do you still need to vent your rage on my drums?” Roger asked.

Freddie shook his head. “No, dear, the hot water has revived me.”

John set a mug of tea on the table in front of him. “Didn’t they have hot water where you were staying?” he wondered. 

“We were camping,” Freddie grimaced, “It was absolute hell, dear.” He glared at the others as they stifled their merriment at the idea of him on a campsite.

They all glanced towards the window and at the rain streaming down the glass. It had been raining heavily all week. “Camping in rain is always miserable,” John noted sympathetically. 

“Camping in any weather is positively barbaric,” Freddie informed him, “and it was also freezing,” he added plaintively. 

“Never mind,” Roger patted his shoulder, “You’re home now.”

“Camping can be good fun,” Brian suggested, “I used to like it when I was a kid. It’s good for star-gazing too. We ought to...”

“No,” Freddie said, his voice firm, before Brian had the chance to complete his sentence. “No, dear, we should absolutely not do that.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” John laughed, “we could have a band team-building session.”

“They happen every time we’re on stage together,” Roger stated.

“Quite apart from anything else,” Freddie said, “the only thing I have discovered about my work colleagues over the last few days is that I completely despise them.”

“It can’t have been that bad, surely,” Brian protested. 

Freddie gave him a withering look. “Firstly, we had to hike for miles through thick mud in the rain to reach the campsite. Lugging all the equipment and supplies with us, I might add. Then tempers frayed over the mind-numbingly tedious task of pitching the tents. I was ready to go home from the second I stepped out of the mini-bus into a puddle.”

Roger patted his shoulder again, saying, “You poor thing. It all sounds very character building.”

Freddie narrowed his eyes and gave Roger a stern look. “Don’t mock, dear, you know you’d have loathed it too.” He sipped his tea and continued, “Once the tents were up we gathered sodden wood so we could squabble about our lack of experience and expertise in lighting any sort of fire let alone setting alight already drenched wood in a downpour. Luckily Gary from accounts had smuggled some fire-lighters to the campsite.”

“So Gary was okay, at least,” Brian suggested encouragingly. 

Freddie snorted. “That’s high praise for the man who got us hopelessly lost on today’s orienteering task,” Freddie told them, “We all made the hideous error of trusting that someone sensible enough to bring firelighters would also be capable of reading a map but, alas, our confidence was sorely misplaced. In fact, I turned out to have a better sense of direction than Gary.”

“You,” Brian stared at Freddie, “You can’t tell your left from your right! When you had that one driving lesson the instructor told you to turn left and you executed a perfect right hand turn!”

“Well, at least it was a perfect right hand turn,” Freddie snapped, stung by this reminder of that failure. “Thank you so much for reminding me of that hateful experience,” he added. 

“Sorry,” Brian apologised, leaning over to kiss Freddie’s cheek. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“Yes, well, it turns out that I may not know left from right but I can read a map. I was quite surprised too,” Freddie told them. “Unfortunately as I was triumphantly leading us back to camp I slipped and found myself sliding down a hill. I was absolutely caked in mud.” Freddie sighed. “The others found it very amusing, although I could have been hurt,” he sniffed. 

“I expect it did look a little bit funny,” John ventured. 

“It was not funny for me,” Freddie huffed.

“No,” Roger soothed him, stroking Freddie’s damp hair, “I’m sure it wasn’t. Would you like more tea?”

*

He’d missed them all more than he would really care to admit, even to himself. He had missed them all more than he had expected to. They had only been together, as lovers, for a month. It had been glorious bewitching month of learning about each other in a new, more intimate, way, getting to know each other as they knew their instruments.

It had been a month of often surprising discoveries. Freddie had expected Roger to be as fiery and commanding in bed as he was behind his drum-kit and occasionally he was but more often John was the one in command while Roger was proving himself a subtle, tender, considerate lover. Freddie had thought Brian would voice his opinions as he did in the recording studio but had found Brian was quieter than he had anticipated with a smouldering passion that was an unforeseen delight. 

He had enjoyed a month with his lovers. The four of them intensely involved with each other for four weeks. They worked so well together despite being so different, a bit like the four points of the compass, he thought now.

John was east, he thought. East was the sun rising, the day breaking and John was the youngest and had everything in front of him. Hot dry winds blew in from the east. John had a dry sense of humour and he was certainly hot, in Freddie’s opinion. In ‘The Wizard of Oz’ the city of Oz was supposed to be ‘east of nowhere’ although the witch of the east was a wicked witch if he remembered correctly and that didn’t fit with John at all.

The witch of the west was a wicked witch too. Brian was west, Freddie thought, although he was not wicked. East and west went together but pulled against one another too and Freddie considered that fit John and Brian’s relationship too. The west could be dramatic with brooding skies and blustery weather like Brian’s mood swings.

If Brian was the ever-changing west then Roger was the warm sunshine of the south. Roger was warm summer nights and gentle breezes. Roger was the sun on your face as you lay in the grass listening to the buzzing of bees. Roger was the occasional explosive fury of a storm – the fury gone as soon as it arrived. 

Which meant Freddie was north. North was the flamboyant drama of the aurora borealis, a spectacular colourful light show. There was grandeur to the north that matched the glamour of the south. North meant magnificent sweeping landscapes. The north also meant a certain chilliness and distance. Freddie knew he could be remote at times but he thought if he had learned anything from the hideous camping trip that it was that he needed the others. North didn’t work without south or east or west. They complemented each other beautifully. 

Planets

The day had not started well. Brian had slept right through his alarm and had dashed out of the door to his first class of the day. He felt very conscious of his untamed hair which he would have liked to have washed. He had only had time for the briefest of washes and felt grotty. 

He had back to back classes all day and a tutoring appointment that evening. His stomach growled – there had been no time for breakfast. The student sitting next to him glanced at him and he flushed.

He was surprised to discover Roger leaning against the wall in the corridor, waiting for him as he left class. “Rog, what are you doing here? I mean, it’s lovely to see you but I don’t really have time...” It was terrible not to have time for Roger. What if Roger needed him? He had automatically started to walk rapidly in the direction of his next class. Roger was bouncing along beside him. He didn’t seem upset. 

“I saw you dash out,” Roger explained, “and I know Tuesdays are busy days for you but this is my day off this week so I thought I’d bring you some supplies.” He thrust a cloth bag at Brian.

Brian peered inside and saw fruit, protein bars and a bottle of water. “Thank you.” He halted so he could hug Roger. 

“Have a lovely day,” Roger urged him, “and I’ll see you later.” 

*

Brian completed his question paper early and sat gazing idly at the others in the class, their heads bent studiously over their papers. He glanced around, filled with a little warm glow when he thought of Roger’s kindness earlier. He had been so lucky to find Roger and John and Freddie he thought. He had not one but three amazing boyfriends.

He noticed posters of the planets on the walls of the room. The four terrestrial planets were in his line of sight. 

Freddie would be Mercury, of course. The planet Mercury was named after the Roman messenger of the gods – representing eloquence, which was very much like Freddie, communication and luck. Freddie was an auspicious person, Brian thought. 

Roger might be Mars, named after the Roman god of war but on the whole Brian thought that Roger was more akin to Venus, named after the Roman goddess of love. Brian thought the goddess Venus would probably look like Roger – blond and beautiful and shining brightly like the planet. Roger, like the planet Venus, tended to be very visible. Brian thought of Venus as a dramatic planet – a desert landscape punched by volcanic activity, wreathed in sulphuric acid clouds. 

John was more like Mars, Brian reflected. Not so much like the Roman god of war, although there were moments when John could seem very strict indeed – Brian thought of the time he had taken the last of John’s ‘good’ tea-bags and gave a small shudder. Mars had northern plains and southern highlands – it was a planet of contrasts and Brian thought John was a little like that too. He seemed quiet and sweet but had proven surprisingly commanding in the bedroom.

That meant Brian would be Earth. The familiar planet, much less mysterious than the others, which Brian thought was fitting. He thought of the others as glamorous elegant beings while in comparison he was a clumsy oaf. He thought again how lucky he was to have found the others. 

*

The planets were used in astrology too, of course, Brian thought as he walked home after his tutoring lesson. Astrology was nonsense, of course, as Brian would have told anyone who had asked what he thought of it. He would not have voluntarily admitted to anyone that he occasionally read his horoscope predictions. 

Mercury retrograde causing chaos fitted with Freddie too. Roger, full of passion and enthusiasm, was a good fit for Venus. There was a disciplined side to John that Brian reckoned fitted well with Mars. 

It was raining and in his rush that morning he had forgotten his umbrella so he was soaking by the time he unlocked their front door. The flat was cosy and Brian felt the same warm glow he had experienced when he’d seen Roger earlier when his lovers all came to greet him.

“Oh, you’re soaking!” Freddie exclaimed, sounding dismayed. “Go and have a nice hot shower and heat up.”

Something smelled good. “I’m making a veggie stew,” John told him. “We thought you’d be hungry. You have time for a shower though.” 

Roger gave him a quick hug and kissed his cheek. “Welcome home,” he murmured.

*

They all chatted about their days as they ate. Brian felt that warm glow again at the thought that they had waited to eat until he had got home and that they had taken the time to make nourishing food for him. He felt loved. 

Cards 

John wished he had never come to the stupid party. He wasn’t even sure whose party it was. It was entirely Freddie’s fault. “It’ll be fun,” Freddie had said, brushing aside his protests that he never found parties fun.

That was not completely true, he thought. He found the parties they threw fun. He thought that was perhaps because he was in Freddie and Roger’s orbit at those parties and their joy was infectious.

He’d lost Freddie long ago at this party. It was being held by a friend (John thought that it was probably a friend of a friend of a friend) of Freddie’s and Freddie was the only person John knew.

A girl with entrancing long light-brown hair was sitting cross-legged on the floor in a corner painstakingly building a house of cards. John stood quietly sipping a drink and watched her. 

Four suits in a pack of cards and four of them – John and Freddie and Roger and Brian. They had not been lovers for long but already John had almost forgotten what life had been like without them. He could not imagine – did not want to imagine – what life would be like without them. Not as rich, John thought. Having three lovers was an embarrassment of riches. He was not embarrassed though. They were a wonder, a marvel, a bounty of riches. Was it greedy to have three lovers? John did not care. Dragons hoarded gold and John was hoarding his lovers. 

The house of cards collapsed. The cards fluttered outwards. The four Queens landed face up at John’s feet. Was that an omen of some sort, he wondered? He stooped and scooped them up and handed them back to the girl who smiled and thanked him and started again, carefully balancing the cards. 

Roger was the Queen of Hearts, John thought. The heartbeat of the band, the heartbeat of their group, the drums were like the regular beat of a heart, simultaneously steady and reassuring while also being stirring and thrilling. A primal thing, John thought. Roger was warm-hearted and generous and pretty. The Queen of Hearts should be pretty, John thought. 

He’d read somewhere that the symbol of Clubs had originated from clover or acorns. So the Queen of Clubs would be Brian, perhaps. Brian liked all animals and was a lover of nature. He could also be blunt when they were playing together and a club was a blunt instrument. 

Spades were thought to have originated from swords, John thought, although he’d also seen leaves mentioned. His sister had told him about a card reading she’d had once and he seemed to recall that the Queen of Spades was a flirt who liked to mingle. That was Freddie, he reckoned. 

That meant he was the Queen of Diamonds. The Queen of Diamonds was a bit of a rogue if he remembered correctly. The card of fraudsters and jesters; the symbol derived from bells or coins. John did not think he was particularly funny, not in a jolly jester way, but he thought he could perhaps fool people. Diamonds were hard and strong. John thought he had perhaps cultivated a strong shell although he would not have described himself as strong.

He gave himself a little shake. He’d clearly had too much to drink. It was time to go and find Freddie and hopefully persuade him to go home. Brian and Roger should be back from the cinema now and John was looking forward to being snugly at home with them. 

Metamorphosis

There was a butterfly on the path as Roger left the house. He halted and, trying not to move too quickly, he fished his phone out of his pocket and tried to zoom in to take a photo of it. The butterfly fluttered away before he could capture it however. 

He thought it had been a Painted Lady. He had always liked the names of butterflies. They sounded like they had entertaining secret lives.

The sun was warm on his back and he felt happy. He was going to meet his lovers and they were going to have lunch together. He couldn’t think of anywhere he’d rather be going right now. He still found it hard to believe that he had three boyfriends who loved him, three people who made him ridiculously happy.

The butterfly had been a good omen, he thought. He would not admit this superstition to the others and only half believed in it himself but the notion was there in his head: seeing a butterfly was lucky. 

Butterflies had four states of being, he thought as he walked along. There were four stages to becoming a butterfly. Their relationship was a little bit like that, he considered. At first they had been eggs, waiting to meet each other and explode into life. Then there was the caterpillar stage. The caterpillars ate everything in sight just as they had explored each other, greedy to know each other, to navigate the then unfamiliar geography of each other’s bodies, eager to learn how to read the moods and emotions of the others. They had wanted to drink in every bit of knowledge they could about their new lovers, just as the caterpillars wanted all of the food. 

Roger thought that after this thirst for knowledge, this period of intense discovery, they had needed a time of quiet contemplation. Their relationship had seemed less furiously paced and had evolved into something calmer, more usual and yet still exciting, still full of promise. This was the chrysalis stage. They were cocooned in a bubble of love. It was warm and intoxicating. They were known to each other, revelling in what they had found out about each other, knitting it into strong bonds.

And now, their relationship was ready to burst forth like a glorious butterfly, colourful and intricately patterned. Their relationship was a thing of strength and beauty and joy.

They were ready to fly.

**Author's Note:**

> If you got this far - thanks for reading!
> 
> Let me know what you think! :)


End file.
